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Sunday, December 22, 2024 | ||
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U.S. forces conducted precision airstrikes against a missile storage facility and a command-and-control facility operated by Iran-backed Houthis in Sana'a, Yemen, on Saturday to disrupt and degrade Houthi operations, such as attacks against U.S. Navy warships and merchant vessels. During the operation, U.S. forces also shot down multiple Houthi attack UAVs and an anti-ship cruise missile over the Red Sea. (CENTCOM) Iran finds itself in a full blown energy emergency as government offices are closed or operating at reduced hours, schools and colleges have moved to online only, highways and shopping malls have descended into darkness, and industrial plants have been denied power, bringing manufacturing to a near halt. Faced with a gas deficit of 350 million cubic meters a day, the government either had to cut gas service to residential homes or shut down the supply to power plants that generated electricity. It chose the latter. By Friday, 17 power plants had been completely taken off line and the rest were only partially operational. In February, Israel blew up two gas pipelines in Iran as part of its covert war with the country, exacerbating the energy crisis. As a result, the government quietly tapped into emergency gas reserves which it has not been able to replenish. Natural gas accounts for 70% of Iran's sources of energy. "Iran is not able to produce as much electricity as it needs, and at the same time it is not able to reduce its consumption," said Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, chief executive of the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation, a London-based economic think tank. "It's very difficult to keep this going." (New York Times) Sweden will no longer fund the UN refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), but instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, Minister for International Development Cooperation Benjamin Dousa told Swedish broadcaster TV4 on Friday. Sweden's decision to end funding was in response to the Israeli ban on UNRWA to take effect in late January, due to its involvement in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel. Sweden plans to increase its overall humanitarian assistance to Gaza next year, he added, naming the UN World Food Program as one potential recipient. (Reuters) See also UN Seeks World Court Opinion on Israel's Ban on UNRWA - Michelle Nichols The UN General Assembly voted on Thursday to ask the International Court of Justice for an opinion on Israel's obligations to facilitate aid to Palestinians. The Norwegian-drafted resolution was adopted with 137 votes in favor. Israel, the United States and 10 other countries voted no, while 22 countries abstained. The move came in response to Israel's decision to ban the operation of UNRWA. Decisions of the ICJ, the UN's highest court, are not binding and the court has no enforcement powers if its opinions are ignored. In a letter to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon said that "replacing UNRWA with relief schemes that will adequately provide essential assistance to Palestinian civilians is not at all impossible. Israel is willing and ready to work with international partners (and already does work tirelessly) so as to allow and facilitate the continued passage of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza, and to ensure the unhindered provision of these necessary basic services, in a way that does not undermine Israel's security." Israel has said the issue in Gaza was not a lack of aid because more than a million tons had been delivered during the past year. It accuses Hamas of hijacking the assistance. (Reuters) The U.S. is set to remove the $10 million bounty it had placed on de facto Syrian leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Jolani). The decision follows meetings between Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf and Sharaa in Damascus on Friday. (NBC News) The U.S. increased its troops in Syria from 900 to around 2,000 before the fall of President Assad, Pentagon Press Secretary Maj.-Gen. Pat Ryder said Thursday. (Defense News) The U.S. government on Friday authorized the sale of more than $5 billion in military equipment to Egypt. The State Department approved the sale of $4.69 billion in equipment for 555 U.S.-made Abrams tanks operated by Egypt, $630 million for 2,183 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles and $30 million for precision-guided munitions. (AFP) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
A rocket fired from Yemen wounded 16 people from flying glass early Saturday in Jaffa near Tel Aviv when it struck a playground between residential buildings. Houthi spokesperson Yahya Qasim Sare'e claimed to have targeted a military target and that the operation was part of the "promised conquest and the holy jihad." Hamas said on their Telegram channel on Saturday, "Hamas highly values the genuine stance of our brothers in Ansar Allah [the Houthis] in brotherly Yemen." (Jerusalem Post) See also Residents Recount Houthi Missile Attack (with photos) - Gal Ganot For the ninth time this month, Yemen's Houthis launched a missile or drone toward Israel, causing significant damage. "The siren started, but we didn't make it to the shelter. There was a very loud explosion, all the windows shattered, the blinds broke and the bed was covered in glass," said Dolly Tamar Eliyahu and Ben Nof, residents of one of the damaged buildings. Ezra Bador, another resident, said: "Just as I was heading to the shelter, there was a serious explosion resulting in broken blinds and windows. It's terrifying. My balcony and bedroom sustained heavy damage." (Ynet News) Since Oct. 6, 2024, the IDF has taken apart the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza, with 70% of the buildings completely destroyed. According to IDF data, 96,000 Palestinian civilians were evacuated from the camp. More than 2,000 Palestinians - most of them armed - were killed and 1,500 suspected terrorists were arrested. Around 100 terrorists and a similar number of civilians still remain. Since the start of the recent operation, 35 IDF soldiers have been killed in the fighting and hundreds more wounded. After Israeli troops suffered many casualties due to entering booby-trapped houses, a different modus operandi was adopted to reduce the number of casualties. During the operation's first two weeks, Hamas terrorized residents by shooting the legs of civilians who tried leaving. The IDF then intensified its pressure and the civilians left quickly. Following Hamas's attack on Oct. 7, 2023, two stolen IDF jeeps were brought to a mosque in Jabalya carrying the bodies of seven Israelis, and a mob of Palestinians trampled on their bodies. The Jabalya operation is supposed to end in a few weeks, after one underground complex is dealt with. From Jabalya, the debate over Palestinian residents' return to northern Gaza as part of a ceasefire deal looks disconnected from reality. It will take many years to clear all the rubble and rebuild the neighborhoods. (Ha'aretz) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
Syria Now that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) controls most of Syria, there is a huge scramble to determine whether and how the group and its top officials should be removed from U.S. and international terrorist lists. As officials look back at the group's convoluted presence on various terrorism lists, they should consider why it has appeared on so many of them. In July 2011, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi - then the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI), previously known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) - sent Abu Mohammed al-Jolani to spearhead his group's entry into Syria. This was the same Jolani who, as head of HTS, appears to be Syria's next leader. In 2011, Jolani was named the leader of ISI's new Syrian offshoot Jabhat al-Nusra (JN). According to the U.S. State Department, JN "claimed nearly 600 attacks" in Syria in its first year of operations, "ranging from more than 40 suicide attacks to small arms and improvised explosive device operations." Delisting from the U.S. terrorist list should be earned, not gifted. The nascent HTS-led government has much to prove to the country's citizenry, to Syria's neighbors, and to the international community. The writer is director of the Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute. (Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Since the Assad regime imploded less than two weeks ago, Israel's military has expanded its perch on the peak of Mount Hermon, straddling the 1974 disengagement zone and giving Israel clear sightlines to the Syrian capital, Damascus, 25 miles away. Israeli troops and tanks, operating overtly in Syria for the first time in 50 years, have moved into southern Syrian villages below, where residents say they are trying to disarm the population. The positioning builds a bigger cushion between Israel's citizens and whatever emerges in Syria following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad as president. Israel says its incursion into Syria is meant to demilitarize the borderlands and secure northern Israel against a potential ground infiltration by its enemies. Kheder Khaddour, a Syrian researcher at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, said Israel's "priority is to position themselves for the worst-case scenario that might happen in Syria....They want strategic locations to strengthen their position in southern Syria should a bad situation happen." Israeli troops often dispatch drones with speakers to populated areas, requesting to speak with local representatives. In those meetings, residents said, Israeli soldiers have sought to reassure residents that their presence is temporary to seize weapons and secure the border. The Israeli military said it avoids entering villages unless absolutely necessary. (Wall Street Journal) School lessons ended in Syria's biggest Palestinian refugee camp on October 18, 2012, judging by the date still chalked up on the board. The Damascus suburb of Yarmuk was home to 160,000 registered refugees in 2011, according to UNRWA. By September 2024, only 8,160 people still lived there. (AFP) Houthis The Houthis, a Shiite Jihadi group, insist on proving to the world that, unlike Hizbullah, Hamas and Iran, they remain unscathed and continue to fight in support of Hamas. The Houthis are euphoric over their military successes and fueled by their extremist Islamist ideology, expecting to emerge victorious and be recognized as the force that held maritime traffic in a stranglehold. In order to deal with the Houthi threat to Israel's home front and to world trade, there must be a resolute military operation that will eliminate its leaders and destroy its military capabilities. They are well armed with the latest Iranian weapons. It is not enough to defend against their ballistic missiles and drones. Their weapons production in Yemen must also be stopped and their warehouses destroyed, so that they are no longer a problem for the world. An attack carried out by the U.S. and Britain earlier this month was on empty command posts near Sanaa and caused only minimal damage, without having any real effect on the Houthis' military capabilities. A joint Israeli-American operation would be able to deter the Houthis if their weapons and production sites are attacked. Without significant military action, the threat from Yemen will persist. (Ynet News) The IDF strike in Yemen on Thursday is a justified response to Houthi fire, but it's not enough to change the reality on the ground. From the moment the Houthis imposed a maritime blockade on Israel, they effectively declared war. Due to the desire to give the international coalition a chance to act against the Houthis, Israel refrained from responding for many months. There has been no extensive and sustained campaign to weaken the Houthis in a way that intensifies the pressure, as has been done with Israel's other adversaries in the current war. It is necessary to demonstrate a different kind of strength against the Houthis, including actions such as targeting commanders, eroding capabilities, and emphasizing that a maritime blockade on Israel comes with a heavy price. The writer, executive director of INSS, was former head of IDF Intelligence. (Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University) Israel and the West Former Sky News Australia presenter Erin Molan spoke to Israel's Channel 12 during her first visit to Israel in an interview aired on Saturday. Molan explained that she became an outspoken supporter of Israel following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror onslaught in Israel. "I can see good versus evil, and I don't think it's complicated at all. I think that every death, every casualty, every single life that's been lost in the Middle East since Oct. 7 lays squarely and solely on the hands of Hamas and the people who fund them." "How could anyone see what occurred on that day to children, to adults, to women, and not collectively as a world wrap their arms around Israel?" she asked. "It's not rocket science to understand where the terror comes from, where the evil comes from, where the death comes from. So how others can't see that blows my mind." (Times of Israel) View the Video - Erin Molan interviewed by Dana Weiss (Channel 12-Israel) British Foreign Secretary David Lammy has declared that he wants to see "chemical weapons stockpiles secured, and not used, and we want to ensure that there is no continuing violence" in Syria. That's why we should applaud Israel, which shares a border with Syria and is clearly taking no chances, inflicting preemptive strikes on any remaining threats to its security by destroying leftover military hardware such as missiles and chemical weapons factories. The Syrian fleet has been destroyed, as have former Iranian bases in the country. In taking such incisive, immediate action, Israel once again does the world's dirty work. In the case of Syria it is doing us all a favor. Remember that the Syrian militia group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which toppled Assad is an offshoot of al-Qaeda. Precisely because it is an alias of al-Qaeda, HTS was proscribed as a terror organization in the UK. Britain is only safe to interact with Syria because its new rulers don't have access to Assad's military machines or chemical hand-me-downs. (Daily Express-UK) It's now clear that, given a free hand, Israel can handle its mortal enemies in the Middle East. It's their so-called friends in the West and the international community that the Israelis have to worry about. In 2024, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have hammered the genocidal pogromists of Hamas in Gaza, devastated their fellow Islamist terrorists of Hizbullah in Lebanon, and shaken their sponsor, the Islamic Republic of Iran, to its tyrannical roots. All of which also facilitated the collapse of the Assad dictatorship in Syria. Anybody who believes in freedom should surely be celebrating the success of the only Western-style democracy in the Middle East as a blow struck for civilization against barbarism. Instead, Israel's traditional Western allies have spent 2024 retreating from its side. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for allegedly committing crimes against humanity in Gaza - the first leader of a Western-style democracy to be charged with war crimes. Forget all the tyrants on Earth, the prime minister of the world's only Jewish state must apparently be singled out for punishment. And several Western states have declared their willingness to execute the warrant and arrest him. Every UN Security Council member except the U.S. recently backed a call for an "immediate, unconditional and permanent" ceasefire in Gaza. That amounted to a near-unanimous demand for Israel to surrender to its enemies. International media have somehow twisted Israel's just war against the genocidal death cult responsible for the Oct. 7 pogrom as an act of genocide. In reality, the IDF has gone to greater lengths than any army in history to reduce civilian casualties. The desertion of Israel is a travesty not only for Israelis and Jews but for the West itself. The Israelis are fighting for the principles on which our civilized societies were built: democracy, national sovereignty and freedom. We should be supporting them as the front line in the global war against barbarism and slavery. (Spiked-UK) Palestinian Arabs PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has launched a military operation, named "Defense of the Homeland," targeting armed groups from Hamas and Islamic Jihad in northern Samaria, particularly within the Jenin refugee camp. The operation is framed by Abbas as a campaign against lawlessness. During the operation so far, PA security forces reportedly killed two prominent armed militants, including Yazid Ja'isa, the commander of Islamic Jihad's "Jenin Battalion." PA officials claim they intend to take full control of the Jenin refugee camp and expand operations to combat armed factions in Nablus and Tulkarm. The PA blames Hamas for bringing disaster upon Gaza on October 7, 2023, and for attempting to destabilize the West Bank. Israeli security officials remain unconvinced of the PA's ability to neutralize terrorist networks in northern Samaria. Current estimates suggest there are several hundred armed militants in the camps and approximately 1,000 in the surrounding areas. For now, the PA's efforts seem to be as much about optics and survival as they are about substantive change. (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) Unusually, at its initiative, the Palestinian Authority is currently dealing with a challenge to its control over the cities of the West Bank, beginning with Jenin. The PA action is viewed as an experiment in proof of capabilities, in the event that the PA's involvement in a future solution for rule in Gaza becomes possible. The Jenin refugee camp has been operating for over two decades as an autonomous bubble in which the PA has difficulty exercising its control. The true rulers of the camp were armed individuals identified with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah. For more than a week, the camp has been surrounded by hundreds of members of the PA's security units, which are conducting violent searches in about half its area. Three militants have been killed and more than 20 wounded; dozens more have been arrested. More than 50 explosive devices have been found, as well as four booby-trapped cars. The PA needs to try to exert its power, partly as proof of its capabilities in preparation for Gaza and also against the backdrop of the events in Syria, which are stoking the fires of dissent against the government not only in Iran and Jordan, but in the West Bank as well. An Israeli security source said, "Jenin is now a microcosmos of the whole West Bank. If the PA sputters there, its control in the entire region is in danger. All told, the units have legitimization to act at the moment. If they're successful in Jenin, it's likely that they will try to extend their activity to additional refugee camps in the north part of the West Bank. If they fail...that could signal the beginning of the end of their rule." (Ha'aretz) Had the international community held the Palestinian Authority (PA) accountable for financial and administrative corruption after the signing of the Oslo Accords 30 years ago, the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group would not have gained popularity, although many Palestinians support Hamas's policy of rejecting Israel's right to exist. The current Palestinian Authority leadership is just not seen by many Palestinians as a better alternative to Hamas. That is because the U.S., EU and other donors are not banging on the table and demanding an end to the PA's authoritarian and corrupt conduct. The writer, a veteran Israeli journalist, is a senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. (Gatestone Institute) Observations: The Inside Story of Israel's Victory - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu interviewed by Elliot Kaufman (Wall Street Journal)
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